This I Believe

After much consideration and thought I finally came up with a title for this essay. I believe in “winging it.” The best definition I found for this term came from urbandictionary.com, “Wing it- To have no skill or natural ability in the task you are fixing to do but having the ability to make everyone around you think that you do.” Winging it is good for final exams, speeches, presentations, and “This I Believe” essays.

When I was given the assignment to write a “This I Believe” essay I had no idea what “This I Believe” was. My teacher explained vaguely that all I had to do was write an essay about something that I believed in and turn it in next Thursday. Hearing this eased my mind and I thought this assignment was going to be a piece of cake, everyone has beliefs, Right?

As soon as I arrived home, around three twenty-five pm, I immediately got online to see what I could find about this essay context. I was pleasantly surprised when I typed in “This I Believe” into Google and came up with two hundred and ninety-two hits. I scrolled through the first page looking for the best link. I ended up clicking the second link from the top which seemed the most informative.

While waiting for the website to load I sifted through my brain to see if I could find something I strongly believed in. Still waiting and sifting I discovered I believed in quite a few things. I then realized that my vocabulary was lacking severely and I couldn’t think of any words to describe any of the things I believed in. Stumped and embarrassed by my lack of vocabulary, it dawned on me that I believed in quotes. Not the actual form of quotes or the idea of quotes, but things like; “I believe in a thing called love. Just listen to the rhythm of my heart”-Darkness and, “You never truly appreciate something until it’s gone.” –Anonymous. My brain works in phrases I have concluded, not specific words.

Aha! The web page has loaded, back to the point and the original belief of this essay. Looking at the website I could tell it was very well put together and that I had chose the right link. I scrolled through the page and clicked “Search Essay Database” from the left hand menu. From here I was directed to a page that let me search through previously submitted essays from all fifty states, all ages of people, and essays on topics such as love, children and freedom.

The first essay I read was about the laughable hypocrisy of our educational system written by Caitlyn Barnes, who graduated from my school last year. Her essay was interesting and by reading it I learned what format to use and some techniques that might also be helpful. Clicking back to the page that let me choose an essay I realized that there were only sixty- nine categories, and no category labeled miscellaneous. Disappointed by the fact there was no miscellaneous category I clicked the fear section and read a couple more essays. After reading about six or seven essays I decided that most people have at least one strong belief in something, or at least it is strong enough to write an essay about.

I am not like most people, as one can tell. I am passionate about multiple things and have beliefs about many areas in life. I could have written an essay about the power of love, or hope, or nature, but I chose to be different and not follow the norm and write about something like this. I don’t even know what to call this, but it is what it is. Take it or leave it. Love it or hate it. This was my best attempt to form a new category on the “This I Believe” webpage.

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Top 100 Essays USB Drive

This USB drive contains 100 of the top This I Believe audio broadcasts of the last ten years, plus some favorites from Edward R. Murrow's radio series of the 1950s. It's perfect for personal or classroom use! Click here to learn more.

This week’s essay

Growing up in the former Yugoslavia, lawyer Djenita Pasic enjoyed the peace of her religiously diverse country. But after the fall of communism and the outbreak of the Bosnian War, Pasic was forced to reevaluate her ideas about religion and tolerance. Click here to read her essay.